


Fins and Sea Shells

by UAs_Fics



Category: South Park
Genre: Fluff, M/M, One-Shot, Pirate AU, death mention, hurt comfort
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-05-18
Updated: 2018-05-18
Packaged: 2019-05-08 16:27:21
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,960
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14697969
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/UAs_Fics/pseuds/UAs_Fics
Summary: When Deckhand Butters is pulled off his ship during a storm, he’s sure he’s a goner. Until a strange creature comes and rescues him.





	Fins and Sea Shells

**Author's Note:**

> Does this count as #MerMay???? XD

He hadn't meant to fall off! Honest! He was just heading up to run a message to the captain when a wave came crashing over the side of the ship and pulled him off.   
  
Not that that mattered anyway.   
  
For he, Leopold 'Butters' Stotch, deckhand of Captain Hookhands' vessel, The Great Booty, age 17, was going to die.   
  
Butters clung to the piece of driftwood he'd bumped into during the storm. The sun beat down on him. His stomach growled in hunger.   
  
He tried to wet his chapped lips, but his mouth was too dry. He laughed bitterly. Water all around, but all too salty to drink. Butters scanned the horizon, hoping to see a ship, or land, or anything beside the vast blue ocean he had seen for the last three days, but alas, there was nothing.   
  
He rested his head against the wet wood, trying to hold back tears. He was really going to die out here. It wasn't fair. It wasn't fair at all. He'd ran away from home to the sea for freedom, for adventure! What did he get? Thrown off his ship and death. Butters could almost hear his father's voice in his head berating him.   
  
"Dad was right. I ain't no swashbuckling hero." Butters squeezed his eyes shut. He should just let go of this log and let the sea take him. That's why the sea pulled him off his ship, right? Why make his cruel blue mistress wait any longer? With a breath, Butters let go of the drift wood and floated back into the sea.   
  
He laid on his back awhile, staring up into the sky, trying to make shapes out of the clouds. A few times, he shut his eyes and imagined he was back on land in a field of grass instead, but soon enough a stubborn wave would wash over him and shake him from his fantasy.   
  
Night fell and Butters knew his end would be soon. He was so sleepy, so tired, hungry, and thirsty, but at least he could find comfort in knowing it would all be over soon.   
  
As the stars began to fleck the darken sky, Butters closed his eyes one last time. This was it. His days were over. It had been an alright life, at least. Sure, his time with his parents could have been better, but at least his time on The Great Booty was fun! Oh, he'd miss his friends and crewmates a whole bunch. He wondered if they'd have a funeral for him. If they go fish out the Captain's old worn Bible and read some verses, sing some hymns that none of them could really remember fully.   
  
If they did all that, Butters decided maybe a death at sea wouldn't be so bad. At least he would have a fun adventure to tell everyone in Heaven.   
  
Suddenly, something bumped his side, and a voice said, "Hey, are you alive?"   
  
Butters opened his eyes. He turned his head, careful to stay afloat on his back, looking for the source of the sound. When he didn't find it, he turned back towards the sky.   
  
"W-who's that? Is this the voice of the sea?" Butters frowned. "Look, Missum Ocean, I'm dying as fast as I can for ya! Really, I am! I just didn't realize it would take so long."   
  
"I'm not a 'missum'." The voice laughed. Butters felt something prod him in the side again. This time when he turned to look, he found himself looking face to face with something in the dimming light. Butters gasped, splashing off his back. He floated with his neck just above the water, kicking frantically. He was tired, but seeing that face shocked just enough adrenaline through his body to keep him upright for the moment.   
  
The thing staring at Butters was larger than him, but it didn't look any than older. In fact, if not for the size, fins where its ears should be and the shimmery scales along its cheeks, the creature would have a fine human face. It moved closer to Butters, and Butters tried to move away, but the  adrenaline rush was fading fast.   
  
He opened his mouth to shout, but instead, his stomach protested. Butters groaned. His energy had been depleted, and he felt himself starting to sink. Well, either this monster would get him or the sea would. At this point, Butters really didn't care.   
  
Something long and slimy wrapped around his legs. Instead of dragging him down like he thought they would, they held him aloft. The monster moved closer. It ran a webbed hand along Butter's sunburnt cheeks.   
  
"I'm going to take you somewhere, alright? Don't fight me, please. I promise not to hurt you." It gently said, and Butters nodded numbly. More of those slimy things wrapped around him and Butters felt himself pulled closer to the monster. It enveloped an arm around Butters, holding him to its chest.   
  
  
Butters let his head droop down, listening to the sound of this strange creatures heartbeat. He hoped the sea wasn't too upset that he hadn't died yet. Maybe she sent this creature here to move him to a different place to die. Why, that was probably it! If Butters were the sea, he wouldn't want some corpse floating in the middle of his perfect blue, stinking up the place! He'd want it somewhere off in a corner where no one could see it.   
  
Cool water splashed against Butters' face, pulling him out of his thoughts. He looked down at the arm holding him. Spined fins stretched from the creature's elbow to its shoulder. Under the glow of the moon light, Butter could just make out scars all along the creature's arm. When he turned to its chest, he found more scars. Some looked like bite marks, some like slashes or stabs. Butters couldn't help but wonder what foolish person or animal would even try to fight against whatever this creature was.   
  
"I think this will do." the creature rumbled. "I'm going to put you down. Don't move or you might slip off." It leaned down and carefully set Butters on to a hard, wet surface. Butters tried to push himself up, but his arms refused. He rolled his head to the side. A rock, he realized, he was on a rock.   
  
He heard the creature repeat not to move, then it was gone with a splash. After a few moments there came another splash. the creature's face appeared next to him, smiling softly. It placed its claws on Butters face.   
  
"Here. I don't care for this but I think you'll like it."   
  
The creature lifted his head up a bit before pressing something against his lips. Butters eyes shot wide as he felt cool liquid splash across his tongue. Whatever it was, it tasted like water, but  sweeter. Butters greedily drank it before leaning his head back, panting.   
  
"T-thank you." He told the creature, tears forming at the corners of his eyes. "You saved me. Thank you."   
  
The creature smiled, tossing whatever it had given him over its shoulder. "Do you want another? I can go get one. Or do you want to sleep? You look really tired."   
  
Butters nodded. "Both."   
  
The creature seemed to understand and nodded back before slipping into the water again. Butters let his eyes shut. If he fell asleep before the creature brought more of that water back, it would be alright. Everything would be alright now. He was on land, or at least, he wasn't floating anymore.   
  
Maybe the sea didn't want him to die after all.   
  
Butters squeezed his eyes tight, rolling to his side. His stomach yelled at him and he finally peeked open his eyes. His body still felt weak as he pushed himself up into a sitting position. He looked around and found himself on a flat rock. There were several other rocks around him. The rock he was on had been carved out into a little cave, either by someone's hands or by the ocean itself; Butters wasn't sure.   
  
His foot tapped against something: a small woven basket. Butters pulled the basket carefully into his lap. Left inside was some strange plant, or maybe it was a nut. Butters hand never seen before, an empty, flat, seashell, and a dead fish. The plant was green and had been broken in half. In the middle was some sort of soft white flesh. Butters picked up half of the strange thing.   
  
On the side, someone had carved a picture that looked a little like Butters, then a picture of a shell with an arrow pointing to the opening of the strange fruit. Butters took the shell from the basket, brow furrowed. He carefully scraped it against the inside of the fuirt until the shell was full of the flesh.   
  
It smelled familiar, but Butters couldn't place it. Even if he didn't know, his stomach didn't care as it whined for him to finally feed it. And feed it, Butters did. He emptied the inside of the strange fruit, both halves, then leaned back, patting his stomach.   
  
He eyed the fish in the basket. Butters picked it up by the tail. His nose wrinkled. He'd eaten raw fish before, on a dare from one of his crewmates, but then the fish had been stripped of its scales and gutted. The one in the basket looked as though it had just been caught.   
  
A webbed claw reached out and grabbed the fish around the middle. A strangled scream escaped Butters lips. He scrambled back, dropping his hold on the fish and kicking the basket away in his rush.   
  
The creature from last night looked at him quizzically as it rested its upper body against the floor of the carved out rock. Now in the daylight, Butters finally got a better look at it. It had a human face and was just as attractive as he remembered; sun kissed with a splash of freckles across its cheeks. Its hair was short and messy and the color of gold.   
  
A long, thin dorsal fin grew from its back, between its shoulder blades. Though most of its body was still in the water, Butters could see, the creature body became wholly inhuman past its hips. Instead, orange tentacles grew in the place of its legs. Between the gaps in the tentacles, something grey flashed against the light, but Butters couldn't tell what it was.   
  
He swallowed his fear down and asked, "What are you? Who are you?"   
  
The creature tilted its head. "My name is Kenny. Haven't you seen a seafolk before? You are a sailor, right?"   
  
"'Seafolk'? Like...mermaids?" Butters whispered. "You're a mermaid?"     
  
Mermaid, the seafolk, sirens, all names for a creature that dragged men to their deaths. One of the first stories his crewmates had told him was how their Captain had nearly been lured to his own death by one of those evil sea witches and how he had to cut off his hands to escape her grasp.   
  
The creature, Kenny, it said, laughed, exposing rows of sharp teeth. "Mer, yes, maid, no. I'm no 'missum'. I'm a 'mister'."   
  
"I...the story said mermaids were only, um, fish, though, not..." Butters pointed at the tentacles, trying not to shake. The sea was just being mean now. Eaten by a mister mermaid? That wasn't the kind of story he wanted to tell when he got up to Heaven! Everyone would tease him!   
  
Kenny laughed again, shaking its--his--head. "Well, Dad was a shark. Mom was a cecaelia. Me? I'm just a mess." At that point, Kenny raised a shark tail from the water with a shrug. He lowered it with a splashed before scooting closer towards Butters with sparkly eyes.   
  
"Tell me your name, sailor. What can I call you?" He asked.   
  
"L-Leopold Stotch. That's my Christian name, but people always called me 'Butters'."   
  
"I like that name. It's fun to say. Butters." He tested the name a few times in different tones before bobbing his head. The two stayed silent before Kenny lifted the fish up towards Butters.   
  
"Here. I caught it for you." Kenny told him. "I don't know what type of fish humans like, but I think this kind tastes best."   
  
Butters swallowed the fear in his throat and asked in a shaking voice, "You...you're not fattening me up so you can eat me, are you? I don't care if you are, but, please, be honest."   
  
Kenny's mouth fell open then he shook his head quickly. "What? Fuck, no! I don't eat humans. I don't even know any seafolk who do!"   
  
Butters relaxed. He wasn't sure if Kenny was lying or not, but he chose to think that really was the truth.   
  
"Oh, that's good. I don't think I'd taste all that good anyway." He slowly reached out and took the fish back. "Um, t-thank you. Do you, do you have a knife? To get the scales off."   
  
Kenny looked at him with furrowed brows before shaking his head. "You don't like getting scales stuck in your teeth either, huh? Well, I don't have a knife, but I got this." He pressed his tongue against his teeth before he reached up and grabbed one. With a yank, he ripped the tooth from his gum, leaving a gap. Kenny dunked his tooth in the sea water a few times before holding it out to Butters.   
  
"Careful, it's sharp." He warned as he dropped it into Butters open hand. Butters cringed. There was still a bit of gum on the tooth. He tried to hide his disgust before Kenny noticed, but it was too late.   
  
Kenny frowned. "Oh, yeah, sorry. I guess that's too hard to use for you, isn't it?"   
  
"No, no. I mean, yes, but," Butter stammered, "I don't like raw fish. That other thing you brought was good, though! What was it?" He set the tooth and fish aside.   
  
"Oh, the coconut? Yeah! They fall in the water from the trees on the shore all the time! I like keeping them and taking off the outside parts until I get to the hard shell part, 'cause," Kenny move his hands over his chest, "when I break them in half, they look a little like boobies!"   
  
Butters blinked. "Boobies--no, wait, shore? There's an island around here? Are there people on it?" He felt his heart begin to race.   
  
Kenny frowned. "There is an island, but I've never seen any people on it, only in the boats that sometimes pass by, and I've lived around here for a long time."   
  
"Ah, hamburgers--oh, pardon, my language." Butters sighed. "Well, could you take me to that island anyway? I'd sure like to get somewhere I can make a fire, and try to get dry, maybe cook the fish, too."   
  
Kenny furrowed his brows, then shrugged. "I don't see why you'd do that, but alright. I'll take you there." He held out his arms. "Come on."   
  
Kenny set Butters down close enough to the shore that his feet could still touch the sand under the waves, but just barely. Pushing the memories of his near death yesterday from his mind, Butters waded to the island. When he finally left the water, he fell against the warm sand.   
  
"Are you alright?" Kenny called from the water.   
  
"Yup!" Butters shouted back. "Feels nice is all!"   
  
"Well, if you're sure. I'm going to stay out here if you need anything." Kenny paused then added. "Also, those coconuts? They come from the trees there. The ones on the trees are the kind with the water in them. They're a pain to get through." He pointed to some tree on the shore line. With a splash, Kenny disappeared under the water.

Butters laid against the sand for a few more minutes before he got up to survey the island. As he walked, his clothes finally fully dried out first time in days. He began to notice the dull pain from his sunburn, but Butters ignored that as best he could.

The island itself wasn't very big, but it wasn't that small, either. It took him the better part of the day to walk all the way around it. About halfway through his walk, Kenny popped up in the ocean. He started following him along the shore line, asking questions and pointing out things he knew about the island and its plant and animal life. Butters knew some of what he said wasn't right, but Butters didn't correct him.

When dusk began to paint the sky, Butters found himself a place near the ocean to make a fire for the night.

He took the two fish he'd been cooking off the fire with a stab of his makeshift spear. He wasn't really that happy about having to use Kenny's teeth as the spear head, but it was better than nothing. Butters blew on his meal, muttering a prayer before digging in. He hummed to himself around the flakey fish. Even without salt or pepper, it tasted like the best meal he'd ever had.

"So, is that really good?" Kenny asked. Butters nodded. He finished off his fish, tossing the bones aside, before taking the second fish and placing it on a palm leaf. He walked out into the water up to his waist. Kenny couldn't get close enough to grab the leaf with his arms, so he reached out one of his tentacles for it. He set the leaf in his hands, eyeing the fish.

"It's hot." Butters warned as Kenny went to grab it.  Kenny ate more than half the fish in one bite. He chewed carefully before swallowing.

"Not bad, I guess." He wrapped the rest of the fish back up before handing it back to Butters. "I'll stick to raw, though."

For the next couple of weeks, Butters made himself a home on the island. He built a fire pit and a little shelter. Through some trial and error, he figured out which fruits and plants he could cook and eat. Not too far into the forest, he stumbled across a small pond of fresh water. Thanks to an old, dented copper pot Kenny had brought him, Butters could always have access to clean water.

So it went on that Butters worked to make the island habitable during the mornings, then sat in the shade in the heat of the afternoon. At dusk, he'd make his fire and boil water and cook fruit he'd gathered or seafood Kenny brought. Though he didn't seem to care for it, Kenny always ate a little of whatever cooked food Butters offered him.

More often than not, on those cool evenings, Butters would sit in the water and the two of them would talk.

Kenny told him many things about Seafolk. He told him about how the only ones he saw regularly were the group that migrated through his territory every fall. He went into great, great detail about the she seafolk he'd had encounters with. He told Butters about the reefs below the surface and the fish and kept forests. He told him how if he was purely a shark like his father, he would be the fastest creature around; but his cecealia parts slowed him down. It didn't bother him much, since he liked having the extra appendages.

In return, Butters told Kenny about his life. He told him how he'd run away from home after a particularly nasty fight with his father over taking over the family business. He told him how he'd met up with a ragtag team of young men and became a deckhand on a pirate ship. Butters told stories of his crewmates and ship and about the far off lands he'd seen. He even talked about his own encounters with girls, though he was blushing much deeper than when Kenny told his own stories.

One day, maybe three weeks or a month after Butters arrived, Kenny found his friend pulling something into the water. He swam as close as he could and watched. Whatever it was, it was long, and made of logs held together vines.  Butters panted as he tried to haul it into the water.

Kenny raised a tentacle out of the water and grabbed the rope off of Butter's shoulders.

"Need some help?" He asked.

"Oh, heya there, Ken!" Butters greeted cheerfully. "I sure could."

Following the instructions Butters gave him, Kenny pulled the whatever it was into the water before diving down and fastening the vine to a rock. When he surfaced, he gave Butters a thumbs up. Butters excitedly ran back to the shore, then along the structure to the end.

He threw out his arms. "Whaddya think?"

"What is it?" Kenny asked, swimming around it.

"It's a dock, silly." Butter sat down. "Now I can walk out to see ya and keep dry."

Kenny carefully rested his forearms on the dock. It sunk a little with his weight, but not enough to drag it fully into the water. "It's nice. I like it."

Butters grinned before reaching behind him. "And, and, I can try this out! Ta-da!" He proudly held up a stick with a thin fiber rope attached;  attached; at the end of the line, a hook Butters had carved out of fish bone had been stabbed through a chunk of raw fish for bait.

"It's a fishing rod. Now I can try and catch some fish, too." Butter cast the line out. "If it works, anyway."

"I dunno. Fish aren't that smart. Do you really think they'll fall for that?" Kenny asked.

"Worked back home. Island fish can't be any smarter than the ones in the lake. We just gotta be quiet, is all." Butters wiggled his feet, splashing against the water with his toes.

After a while of waiting in silence, Kenny asked, "Does it usually take this long? I could have caught a bunch by now."

Butters sighed. "Sometimes you catch 'em real quick. Sometimes you don't." He scrunched up his face in thought then asked, "Hey, Kenny, do fish like music?"

"I like music." Kenny replied as Butters began to pull the line back in.

"Lu, lu, lu, I got some apples. Lu lu lu, you got some to." He began to sing. Kenny listened as until Butters started the song over again. This time, Kenny jumped in singing right along. About the time he was half finished, he noticed Butters had stopped singing. Instead he stared at him, mouth agape.

"What's wrong?" He asked.

"You've got a really pretty voice," Butters told him. "Probably the prettiest I ever heard!"

A blush crept up Kenny's cheeks. "Oh, thank you! I like yours too, and this song is lots of fun to sing."

Butters pulled his line back in for the final time as he spoke. "Ya know, all the stories I heard say that seafolk would sing to lure ships to crash and drown everyone. I guess whoever made up those stories never met a real seafolk fella like you. Huh, Kenny?" Butters laughed. When he didn't hear Kenny laughing with him, he turned towards him with a frown.

Kenny wore a deadpan expression on his face. "Butters." He said slowly. "Those stories aren't made up. We do do that."

"W-what?" Butters stammered.

With a sigh, Kenny turned towards the horizon. "We have to, sometimes. To protect ourselves." He turned back towards Butters again. This time his face was heavy with sorrow.

"When seafolk really cry, like actual cry, with full emotion, our tears turn to these gem things. We don't value them much, but your people do, for whatever reason. I don't get it. And for that reason they figure ou--" Kenny's voice cracked. He took a shuddering breath then went on, "they figured out the easiest way to make seafolk cry and steal those from us was to come to our homes, our nurseries, and s-slaughter us."

Butters' mouth open and shut in shock a few times. "W-what? Why? That's evil!"

Kenny nodded solemnly. "Any parents would weep if their baby was killed in front of them. And any child would bawl nonstop of their mom or dad was taken away." He held out his arm. "That...that's how I got most of these scars. A few are from just being a stupid little fry and fucking around with things I shouldn't, but most of them are from when a ship of greedy humans attacked my home and ki-killed my family. B-becuase of them, now I'm all...all al-alone..." He trailed off, his eyes clamped shut. His shoulders shook.

"Oh, oh God, Kenny, I'm...I'm sorry." Butters set his rod aside and got on his knees. "You don't have to talk about it anymore if you don't want. I get it. Those seafolk that sink ships, it's because that's were families with babies live, huh? It's to keep them safe."

Kenny nodded stiffly.

"Yes." He croaked.  Butters felt his stomach twist in guilt. All the stories he'd heard of seafolk, of mermaids, they never painted them in a good light. The seafolk were evil. They pulled sailors from their ships and drowned them. They made storms and sent entire fleets to the bottom of the oceans, for no reason other than to laugh at the humans' whose lives they took. It never once occurred to Butters that the seafolk might have had a good reason to do those things.

Butters gently placed his hands on Kenny's cheeks before resting his forehead against his.  "I'm sorry. That was just plain rotten of those people. I don't even think they're people if they went and hurt little babies. They're the real sea monsters. " He smiled softly at Kenny.

Kenny smiled back before pulling Butters into a hug. For a moment, Butters felt a bit like a child, held in the larger creature's embrace. He wrapped his own arms around Kenny's neck. He felt Kenny take a quivering breath before he began to sob against Butters' shoulders. Somethings small and hard hit against the wood of the dock before splashing into the water between the logs.

Butters couldn't see them, but he knew what they must be and hugged Kenny closer.

"Kenny, even if a ship comes tomorrow, I promise I wouldn't leave ya." He whispered. "I'll stay here with you the rest of my life, if that means you ain't gonna have to be by yourself."

"You don't have to do that," Kenny pulled back, looking into Butters' eyes. Another tear rolled off his cheek. The gem it made fell into the water with a plop.

"I want to." Butters pressed. "You saved my life. You helped me when you didn't have to.  A kind person like you doesn't deserve to be alone. Not ever."

"B-Butters." Kenny forced a smile before reaching up and wiping his eyes. He paused before looking down at his hand, at the gem that began to form on his wrist.  A look of indecision crossed his face for a moment, before he leaned close and pressed a kiss against Butters' forehead. Before Butters could respond, Kenny dropped back into the water and disappeared.

Butters didn't see Kenny for the next few days. He would walk to the edge of the dock every night before he went to sleep, call for his friend, but Kenny never showed.  On the fourth night, as Butters sat on the dock, with his feet in the water, he picked at his dinner. He heard a splash beside him.

Butters jumped as Kenny looked up at him. Only from his nose up was visible. He watched Butters for a long moment.

Finally Butters smiled down at him. "There you are. I missed you!" He offered out his cooked crab with a smile.

Kenny shook his head then rose from the water.

"Sorry, I got caught up in doing...things." He blushed. "Butters, hold out your hand."

Butters raised an eyebrow, but did as he was told. Steeling himself with a breath, Kenny pressed his palm to Butters'. He placed his other hand under his, completely engulfing Butters'.

"This is for you." He said and slid his hands away. His fingertips lingering against Butters' skin for a beat longer than necessary.

Butters brought his hand to his face. He gasped. A necklace of small, shiny shells lay in his hand. In the center of the necklace was a small gem, the color of the sun. Butters held the gem closer and his eyes went wide.

"Is this...?"

Kenny nodded. "Yeah, but it's ok. I want you to have it. It's not from a sad tear. It's from a happy one."

Butters ran his thumb over the gem once. It was beautiful. Looking at it, he could almost feel the happiness that made it. He tied the necklace around his neck. The gem rested itself against the base of his neck like a tiny drop of sunlight.

"I'll never take it off, not ever." Butters smiled. "Thank you, Kenny."

Pink dusted Kenny's cheeks. He sunk a little into the water, not looking at Butters face. A half-snort half-laugh escaped Butters as he leaned closer.

"Hey," he said, "come're. I want to give you something back."

Kenny floated closer. Butters put his hands on his cheeks, rubbing his thumbs where the scales and skin intermingled. He scanned the merman's face, his freckles, his thin nose, his round cheeks, his ocean-colored eyes, then leaned in and kissed him on the forehead. He could almost feel Kenny's face heat up under his lips before he pulled back.

"You really promise to never take it off?" Kenny whispered.

Butters pressed their foreheads together."I promise. I'll wear until the day I die."

**Author's Note:**

> I'm suppose to be working on my work for the WipBigBang, but I wrote this instead.  
>  My Art Tumblr.


End file.
